AP: Kerry Aims to Avoid Gore Recount Mistakes

[emulatorloo]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=ap/kerry_day_after_strategy

<snip>

Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) has a simple strategy if the presidential race is in doubt on Nov. 3, the day after the election: Do not repeat Al Gore (news - web sites)'s mistakes.

Unlike the former vice president, who lost a recount fight and the 2000 election, Kerry will be quick to declare victory on election night and begin defending it. He also will be prepared to name a national security team before knowing whether he's secured the presidency.

<snip>

Six so-called "SWAT teams" of lawyers and political operatives will be situated around the country with fueled-up jets awaiting Kerry's orders to speed to a battleground state. The teams have been told to be ready to fly on the evening of the election to begin mounting legal and political fights. No team will be more than an hour from a battleground.

The Kerry campaign has office space in every battleground state, with plans so detailed they include the number of staplers and coffee machines needed to mount legal challenges.

<snip>

[Nimrod]

1. It's a comfort to know

That Kerry is taking this threat seriously. The line between being a conspiracy theorist and a realistic thinker is pretty damn thin these days.

[Born Free]

47. what happens if the bush coward ties it up in court?

Although they were in a hurry last time,this time they will do everything they can do to tie things up in court, meanwhile the bush cowards remains in charge....it could take years to resolve it, meanwhile, the bush coward uses his position to advance his right wing fanaticism these rotten bastards will stop at nothing to advvance their agenda against America.

[belle]

50. It won't take years. No one will stand for it.

[JuniorPlankton]

2. That's the only way to go!

[StClone]

3. It's not the old traps they set

These bastards usually use the old tried and crooked but always have time and money to invest in new forms of treachery.

[cybildisobedience]

41. that's the key

It's not the stuff that worked before that we have to be prepared for - it's the new stuff they're cooking up!
Can't the Dems like, hire an FBI profiler or something to get in the minds of a Republican strategist to figure out where they'll strike next?

[SCDem]

4. I am sooooo hoping that it doesn't get to this point

That Kerry can win by at least 5% so that there is little to know room for doubt on who the legitimate President of the United States should be.

[acmavm]

5. Good. Gore should have done this as well, but he felt the country needed

to get past the election fiasco. So he chose to do the 'gentlemanly' thing, and not fight tooth and nail. He was voted in as president by the majority of the people, prevented from taking office by a bunch of criminals, and thought he was doing the best thing for our country. I suppose I see where he was coming from, but I sure wish he would have fought harder.

Anyway, I am overjoyed to see that Kerry is going to fight this bunch tooth and nail. And we must support him in his efforts. (Like I really need to tell anyone here this.)

Go John, we're behind you 200%.

[Edmond Dantes]

8. Gore also had a shitty, naive attorney ...

named Walter Dellinger. I know Dellinger personally and he is a total idiot. I'm surprised he has the nerve to show his face in D.C.

[cybildisobedience]

13. I'm aconcerned about Kerry's team, too

I just heard this morning that David Boies' partner is heading Kerry's team, and I think he missed the boat last time by not arguing the minority disenfranchisment angle. I hope they don't make that mistake again.

[Ima]

31. also

Gore was betrayed by ex Chicago mayors son ? Daley. I believe he was Gores campaign mgr. He met with Republicans, while working for Gore, who offered him a job after the election. He sold Gore out and gave him bad advise.

[Edmond Dantes]

48. Crap, I didn't know about this, but

it IS the ReThug modus operandi to "buy" people off. We need to work with people we know to be principled.

[fujiyama]

9. I don't think

Gore's problem was that he didn't fight on - he didn't have a choice. Once the Supreme Court has ruled against you, you know there is little hope. Also, I'm sure at that time, Gore had some intention or interest in running again.

His main problem was not defending his win in FL immediately. He should have asked for a state wide recount right away - he should never have asked for recounts only in specific counties.

Of course, then there was Lieberman who backstabbed the team's efforts regarding ILLEGALLY cast military ballots that had no postmarks...

[kskiska]

22. From Oct. Vanity Fair article on Election 2000

Asking for a recount in these large, Democrat-dominated counties left the Gore team fatally vulnerable to the charge that they wanted not all votes counted, as Gore kept claiming in his stentorian tones, but only all Gore votes. Yet the Bush team knew full well that Gore could not have asked for a statewide recount, because there was no provision for it in Florida law. A losing candidate had 72 hours to request a manual recount on a county-by-county basis or wait until the election was certified to pursue a statewide recount. The requests had to be based on perceived errors, not just the candidate's wish to see recounts done.…

[chimpy the poopthrower]

38. thank you! (nt)

:)

[Cha]

15. We learned four years later that he should

have "Fought harder"..but that's hindsight..Course there were more than a few who knew that Disaster would happen with a creepy bush in office.

[coalition_unwilling]

39. Gore's point was\is that we "are a nation of laws"

and in conceding after the U.S. Supreme Court halted the Florida recount, he was upholding that tradition.

Of course, few of us knew how the idea of the republic would be trashed in the next four years. If you blame Gore for anything, let it be simply that he (like I myself) lacked the foresight to have taken the true measure of BushCo's evil.

[shrike]

40. In Gore's defense, how the hell could he have anticipated what would

happen during the election -- and just how fucked up things would get afterwards.

I opposed Bush, but thought, "How bad can he be?" Well, I found out. If Gore knew then what he knows now he would have fought harder.

[Edmond Dantes]

49. If I was able to anticipate it

(and I WAS, simply by virtue of recognizing the names of the lawyers on the GOP briefs) Gore's folks should have -- ESPECIALLY Walter Dellinger, as I personally tried to warn Dellinger about the GOP lawyers.

[truthisfreedom]

6. psyops! excellent! rally the troops!

i love it. this rawks. 8^)

[robbedvoter]

7. I hope he succeeds. Kicking Gore was highly unnecessary

Considering that the "ticket" refused to contest Florida electoral votes (in the Joint session Jan 6, 2001) and he "has no patience for those crying in their teacups over stolen elections"
Damn, we are settling for so much less this time.....

[emulatorloo]

10. Blame AP's Ron Fournier and Nedra Pickler - they wrote the story

There are no quotes or attributions "kicking Gore" from anybody in the Kerry campaign. Many of them worked for Gore. Gore is a great man, so is Kerry.

[chimpy the poopthrower]

23. Ron Fournier is an ass...

...and a Bush shill. He's the one who made up the phony BS about Kerry wanting McCain as VP.

[sventvkg]

11. Kerry Will be using these teams for sure..Glad he is fighting cause it

will come to this and I believe it needs to come to a head so we can move on as a nation.

[OneBlueSky]

12. if I recall correctly, the Gore problem centered on recounts . . .

with touchscreen voting, recounts aren't possible . . . so about the only thing these teams of lawyers can attend to are attempts to prevent people from voting . . . the recount issue is moot . . .

[jmcgowanjm]

16. Hackers for Dems

When Volusia County reports a negative 16K votes for Kerry
Alachua County reports a negative 18k votes for Bush.

Of course it'll start to look kinda strange that
as the evening goes on the FL vote total
decreases.

[nodehopper]

33. oooh, do you have a link?

[Cha]

14. Noted and Rated!

"Six so-called "SWAT teams" of lawyers and political operatives will be situated around the country with fueled-up jets awaiting Kerry's orders to speed to a battleground state. The teams have been told to be ready to fly on the evening of the election to begin mounting legal and political fights. No team will be more than an hour from a battleground.


The Kerry campaign has office space in every battleground state, with plans so detailed they include the number of staplers and coffee machines needed to mount legal challenges.


"Right now, we have 10,000 lawyers out in the battleground states on Election Day, and that number is growing by the day," said Michael Whouley, a Kerry confidant who is running election operations at the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites)."

This is friggin Music to my ears..Poor Al Gore didn't know what hit him but he plowed it before us to Lead the way!!

[Q]

17. The Bushies have this covered with their 'no recount' touch screens...

- Just how do you have a recount when over 30 percent of the voting machines don't produce a paper trail? There's nothing to count.

- It's nice that Kerry's team is prepared...but this election won't be like 2000 in so many ways. The Bushies have developed NEW WAYS to cheat.

[shoelace414]

18. provisional ballots

[w4rma]

44. I'm sorry but provisional ballots wont do crap to prevent fraud.

It'll only make the user of them more likely to let down their guard, since *their* own ballot is safe, even though the vast majority isn't And adding a few votes to that vaste wasteland of zeros and ones inside the computers' memory will just cancel out your provisional ballot, anyway.

[goclark]

19. What is the PROactive Plan!

I think this sounds wonderful!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

20. Good to see that Kerr y wants this thing!!!

[Generator]

42. That's why when Kerry came out to the sounds of No retreat/no surrender

by Mr. "the boss" Springsteen, at the convention, I was smiling with a newfound joy.

No retreat,no surrender. That's what it means. You either f'in mean it or you don't. I believe Kerry means it.

[bearfan454]

21. He is doing the right thing.

He is.

[Tesibria]

24. the white house is clearly planning on a disputed election...

...
The official 2004 White House Historical Association's Ornament is described (at http://www.whitehousehistory.org/01/subs/01_a.html) as follows:

...The 2004 ornament honors President Rutherford B. Hayes and his family who came into office after a fiercely disputed election. A pragmatic reformer Hayes served with integrity and honor. His household represented the model American family in an age buffeted by accelerated changes in the economy and society.

[Mrs_Beastman]

25. Best thing I've read all day, thanks

[democrat_patriot]

26. If he's this detailed for a vote recount - imagine his plans to keep us sa

eom.

[Raster]

27. This so fucking ROCKS!!! Not only will the entire planet be scrutinizing

...the election process and results, but aggressive legal foot soldiers are will be positioned and ready to strike. Guess what motherfuckers? You want to steal this election, you're going to have to fight for it!

[alfredo]

28. Then there is the Fox factor

[Edmond Dantes]

30. What concerns me is that

rioting after a stolen election will be viewed as grounds for declaring martial law. And paid corporate mercenaries will stomp all over you and your rights.

[callous taoboy]

36. delete

[callous taoboy]

37. Bring 'em on! Whoops, better strike that. n/t

[alfredo]

45. As if they didn't

already have control of the government.

[The Chronicler]

29. This is what I suggested the other day.

Declare victory immediately and begin suggesting cabinet positions etc.

[nodehopper]

32. awesome!

[TrogL]

34. We need a political cartoon

I'd draw it but it's beyond my ability.

I'm thinking lawyers jumping out of airplanes like paratroopers.

[Minstrel Boy]

35. It better be an incontestable landslide

or people are going to die this time.

I'm glad Kerry appears determined to not role over, but incumbency carries enormous leverage when there are competing claims for legitimacy. (Especially when the administration and its supporters are filthy, fucking scoundrels.) The invocation of martial law if the streets erupt can be counted on.

[GoSolar]

43. Excellent!

Go Kerry! :D

[Piperay]

46. TERRIFIC

I'm so relieved to know that they are prepared and will not give up the fight no matter what. :-)